After all a different role still allows for opportunities. That is how welterweight Jay Hieron (23-5 MMA, 0-2 UFC) and lightweight Danny Castillo (14-4 MMA, 4-1 UFC) view their contests – against Jake Ellenberger (27-6 MMA, 6-2 UFC) and Michael Johnson (11-6 MMA, 3-2 UFC), respectively – tonight at UFC on FX 5 at Target Center in Minneapolis.

Originally slated for UFC 151 Sept. 1 in Las Vegas, Hieron and Castillo endured that event’s cancellation after the main event fallout between 205-pound champion Jon Jones, injured No. 1 contender Dan Henderson and offered late replacement Chael Sonnen. Hieron and Castillo’s veteran status prompted them to welcome the change and resulted in an extra five weeks to prepare for their bouts.

“A little more time will not hurt a guy like me,” Hieron told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “Every positive that can come out of it, I go with that. I’m still signed with the UFC. I’m fighting the same opponent. I still have the co-main event. All it is is a little more time in a different city.”

Hieron, who returns to the UFC after a seven-year, 19-fight adventure through MMA’s tumultuous landscape, simply went on with his morning routine when he found out his original UFC reentry date was scrapped. He was on his couch watching the Sacha Baron Cohn comedy “The Dictator.” Hieron answered a call from his manager, got the news and went back to watching television before venturing out to the Cracked Egg in Las Vegas for his usual breakfast. What can shake a fighter who followed up the fall of the IFL and Affliction with contract and title controversies in Strikeforce and Bellator?

Hieron has learned in his nine-year career the closest thing to certainty in the fight game only exists between the first and final bell. It’s why the New York native remained steadfast in his pursuit of the moment when he meets Ellenberger center cage.

Any time a fight date changes, “it’s not a good thing,” the 36-year-old said, “but fortunately for me, I’ve been through it. I kind of know how to react and take it.”

“It sounds crazy, but that’s what happened. I got the confirmation, and I started thinking, ‘What am I going to do?'”

The logistics: No longer having to make weight, etablish a new training schedule. Winless in the UFC, Hieron fell to 170-pound champion Georges St-Pierre pre-title in just two minutes in 2004, and GSP teammate Jonathan Goulet defeated him in a bloodbath that ended in a TKO cut stoppage after 11 unsightly minutes in 2005. A few more marks on the calendar can’t shift his focus away from his first octagon victory because it’s something he’s thought about his entire career. If anything, this just ups the amount of times he’s trained for Ellenberger to four: Once when he beat “Juggernaut” six years ago in the IFL, earlier this year helping teammate Martin Kampmann prepare for him, then twice for this UFC co-main event.

Castillo has almost half the time in the sport as Hieron. Mentally, accepting and pressing the reset button wasn’t as clean for the Team Alpha Male representative. He recognized the mental game is the sport’s most integral intangible, so he worked quickly to put to rest UFC 151’s issues for his own sake.

“When I go into a training camp, it’s so hard for me to relax,” Castillo said. “It’s after the training camp when I’m done that I can relax and reset. There’s no 10-hour days the week after a fight. I think emotionally it’s draining. My girlfriend’s always telling me I’m not there when she’s talking to me. I’m fighting the fight in my head the whole time. I beat this guy [Johnson] in my head every day.”

As a lifelong athlete, Castillo felt ready to adjust to anything physically. The WEC veteran already finished his hard sparring and peaked for UFC 151, so he forced himself to take a week off after hearing news of the cancellation on Twitter. Restlessness found him inside the Ultimate Fitness gym three or four days during his rest week anyway. Suddenly concern shifted to not overtraining. He stopped lifting weights two weeks out from UFC 151, but there is no way he could go through his next camp without it. After figuring out the details, Castillo tuned into the idea of thinking about Johnson for another five weeks and let the stress roll away.

That’s when the positives were illuminated. He spent a week preparing his boxing for UFC 151 with Jeff Mayweather. Those skills didn’t disappear ahead of UFC on FX 5; he carries them with him. In fact, he only deepened focus on his hands by working with the Diaz brothers’ boxing coach, Richard Perez, for the last five weeks in his second Johnson camp. It gives him a greater chance of leaving no stone left unturned.

“I look at my career as a whole,” said Castillo, who hopes to extend his UFC win streak to four. “Not just so much for each fighter, not for Michael Johnson. It’s closing the gaps I have holes in. As long as I close those gaps, I’ll be a better fighter [on fight night].”

On the day following Castillo’s final hard day of his UFC 151 camp, he turned 33 years old. The event had already been canceled, and his fight had yet to be rescheduled. “Last Call” didn’t live up to his nickname and went to bed before midnight on his birthday. The longer his career, reflects Castillo, the more everyday life is like camp life. It’s a truth that helped him through this process: better to have more time to prepare than less.

It’s a sentiment Hieron echoes.

“So for me, yeah this is a brand new fight,” Hieron said. “I feel I’m ready. It is perfect timing. I’m focused on definitely having a great night on Oct. 5.”

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